Detecting foreign objects in food processing

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Thread Starter

Ed Meltzer

We are working on a project where pieces of a rubber seal are ending up inside of a packet of powdered pectin. Is there an x-ray type of device that can be integrated to a conveyor which will detect this foreign matter inside of a box where the packet is already sealed?
 
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Anthony Kerstens

Random destructive sampling? Or what about using
a cyclonic separator before packaging?

Why not just fix what ever it is that's chewing up
the seals?

Anthony Kerstens P.Eng.
 
L
This would be extremely difficult. What is the relative density between pectin & rubber? What is the relative X-Ray opacity of the two?

ABB Process Automation in Columbus, OH does a lot of work with X-Ray & Nucleonic inspection systems. Their number is 614 261-2000. (I used to work for them)

An X-Ray system would cost at least $200K though; I would suggest finding the source of contamination & fixing the problem at the source.

> We are working on a project where pieces of a rubber seal are ending up inside of a packet of powdered pectin. Is there an x-ray type of device that can be integrated to a conveyor which will detect this foreign matter inside of a box where the packet is already sealed?
 
J
Hi Ed,
just have a look to companies which provide luggage X-ray controler in the airports. They are generally based on a linear X-Ray detector. You can use a linear frame grabber to analyse the pictures. Notice that you need to have a different
area mass to distinguish foreign objects.
Thomson has several X-Ray detectors.

J-F Portala
SoViLor company
 
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Pierre Desrochers

Once inside the box ... forget about it ... but to detect the pieces before they go in, could you try a sensitive color detection camera ?

My 2 Cents

Pierre
 
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Dear Ed,

I saw a presentation on a system for this that had some nice features (though I can't remember too much about it) from a firm called
Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Ltd., based in Birmingham, UK. The guy who spoke was Andrew (or maybe Ian) Marshall. There contact
details are:

Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Ltd.
45 Roman Way
Coleshill
Birmingham
West Midlands
B46 1JT
Tel: +44 1675-466111
Fax: +44 1675-467111

I found a web page describing some research work they seem to be sponsoring:

http://www.eng.dmu.ac.uk/~acata/research.html

I hope this helps.


Andy Clegg
[email protected]___

Advanced Control Technology Club, Industrial Systems and Control Ltd.,
50 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1QE Tel: (+44) 0141 553 1111
http://www.isc-ltd.com/actclub.html Fax: (+44) 0141 553 1232
______________________________________________________________________
 
R
Check out a company called Graseby Gorring-Kerr. They are now part of the Ramsey group. They make metal detectors of all kinds and have x-ray
equipment such as you asked about.

Best Regards... Rick Kelly

Chief Technician
Natural Cuts
Cheese Operations
Kraft Canada
(613) 537-8069 V
(613) 537-8057 F
[email protected]
 
R
Anthony Kerstens wrote:

> Why not just fix what ever it is that's chewing up the seals?<

Mice?
 
C
This one begs a second look perhaps. There's a process called Management Oversight Risk Tree (MORT) which was developed for analyzing aviation
mishaps I believe. The general theme is to regress in the incident until a root cause can be determined. Trying to throw technology into detecting the rubber contamination seems a bit like using a seismograph to sense airplane
crashes.

Isn't the objective to prevent the seal pieces from getting into the product? Can the process be analyzed to determine why seal fragments get
into the product, how they get there, and what measures can be implemented to prevent it from happening in the first place? There may be a really simple solution.

Carl Ramer, Engineer
Controls & Protective Systems Design
Space Gateway Support, Inc.
Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Unsponsored professional opinion.
 
A

Andy Piereder

I agree with Carl that you have to treat the source of the problem, but I may have some more specific suggestions about what to look for (I designed and manufacturered industrial food processing equipment in another life).

If mating and moving surfaces against which a seal is compressed against, don't mate well, the seal can be curled out of its seat and chunked or cut. This can be caused by poor assembly practices on equipment or damaged shafts and bearings. The propensity for this to happen may also be a design problem inherent to the machine.

You could have the rubber analysed to determine its durometer--that would give you some idea of what type of seal it is and where it might likely be located. Do they look like pieces of O-ring, quad, u-cup, something else? Try to localize the problem

Inspect every piece of the equipment on the line or have an independent engineer (not the vendor) come out and evaluate the equipment. Someone with
experience could probably find the source of the problem rather quickly.

In spite of the fact inspection isn't the solution to your problem, it is part of the solution, but I am not sure that X-ray equipment is the way to go. The forays into X-ray inspection that I was familiar with some years
ago may have improved, but at the time they were expensive and problematic to maintain. You might consider placing metal detection equipment on the
line between processing and packaging. Metal detection? Well yes--in general, most metal detectors are sensitive enough to differentiate between the fairly narrow differences in density and usually have to be "detuned" to work in some environments. Almost all the industrial metal detectors used in pharmaceuticals and food are made by English companies of which several have offices in the US. The one that comes to mind is Loma Engineering in Chicago.

Andy Piereder
Pinnacle IDC (formerly with L. Piereder Machinery Ltd.)
 
Hi all

As a consumer I would be more worried about the mice being "chomped" up. Ever thought of a cat or two. :)

Following this thread I tend to agree that finding a solution prior to packing would be more desirable, sorry i have no more than menitoned.

Cheers
Allan Dow
Emebdded Systems & Solutions
 
A
We have developed a capacitive vision system which can 'see through closed packages'. This is currently being used in the pharmaceutical industry. It is similar to an xray system but is not as high resolution and is totally safe.

Safechek has many applications in food and confectionery industry. Please contact us if you require further information

[email protected]
 
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www.atlasinspection.com

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